Comment 62233

By moylek (registered) - website | Posted April 14, 2011 at 08:00:47 in reply to Comment 62230

Harper was supported by about a fifth of the actual Canadian population, and most voters by far voted against him.

How is this less true of government leaders in PR / coalition-government systems? Berlusconi's party got only 38% of the popular vote in the last 2006 election in Italy - so most voters "voted against him." Yet he leads a coalition with almost 50% of the seats after their baffling (to me) system of rejigging from party lists.

I was just reviewing the list of countries with PR-elected national legislatures at Wikipedia. As a Canadian, I don't look longingly at many of those nations' politics or governance. Which ones do you think we would do well to emulate?

I'm not arguing for the merits of FPTP per se. But I am highly doubtful of the claims made for PR. Our system has its problems right now - some rather special to Canada, such as the disruptive effect of the BQ - and PR would be a change. But to change a flawed system is not necessarily to fix it.

-- Kenneth Moyle Hamilton, Ontario

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